The videos purport to show employees of the women’s healthcare organization illegally trafficking in fetal tissue, though, like previous videos, there is no apparent evidence of such activity.

Fetal tissue donated by women who receive abortions is used in complex medical research, including on diseases such as Parkinson’s. Often, those tissues are processed by companies such as StemExpress Inc, which then provides the materials to research labs.

A series of videos released by Center for Medical Progress has focused on the donations as a way to whip conservative furor against Planned Parenthood. Videos and statements by the groups have characterized Planned Parenthood as selling “baby parts”, despite the fetuses not being viable.

In a video released Tuesday, Center for Medical Progress describes a Houston, Texas, affiliate, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, as a “mega-clinic” before cutting to activists’ meetings with its director of research, Melissa Farrell. Activists posed as representatives of Biomax Procurement Services LLC, which appears to be a shell company, to gain access to the facility.

There, under the guise of Biomax Procurement Services LLC, activists ask Farrell about how many intact fetal cadavers might be available for the company. Like other videos released by Center for Medical Progress, the footage is highly edited, and activists ask leading questions. The fifth video also devotes almost one-third of its 15 minutes to a stomach-churning sequence of anti-abortion activists picking through a bowl of fetal tissue.

Though Farrell and the activists discussed types of procedures to accommodate Biomax’s desired samples – something which could be ethically problematic – the activists and Farrell do not discuss the exact cost of such samples.

“Because some of our doctors in the past have projects [research] and they’re collecting the specimens, so they do it in a way that they get the best specimens, so I know it can happen,” Farrell said, responding to a request for intact cadavers.

Farrell also offered a caveat, that while there would be flexibility in procedures she would need to speak with physicians and that the availability of specimens depends on, among others things, the anatomy of the patient.

Farrell also notes that samples from third trimester abortions could be more costly because of the increased administrative costs.

“Obviously, the procedure itself is more complicated. So that anything we integrate into that procedure, without having you cover the cost, is going to be higher, right,” Farrell said.

Center for Medical Progress has come under fire for misrepresenting itself, potentially deceiving the IRS and being affiliated with an anti-abortion activist that harassed providers in Wichita, Kansas for years before the murder of Dr George Tiller. Two California courts, one a local court and one federal court, have enjoined the release of footage based on pending lawsuits and the potentially illegal activities of CMP.

Still, that hasn’t stopped some politicians from latching onto the videos as a reason to defund Planned Parenthood.

A Republican-led effort to strip the women’s healthcare organization of the $500m in federal funding it receives annually narrowly failed on Monday. Generally, that money is used to treat poor women and screen for cancer and sexually transmitted infections, among other efforts. Already by federal law, none of the federal funding Planned Parenthood receives can be used for abortion care. The bill was seven votes shy of the 60 needed to pass the Senate.